Abstract

Strain is known to affect magnetism, with possible dramatic effects as suggested by the theoretical calculations of Moruzzi and Marcus [1] and experimental results of Shinde and coworkers [2]. Barthotin and coworkers [3], and others. There is a general acceptance of the strong influence of magneto-elastic interactions on the Curie temperature and other magnetic properties. For the rare earth metals, the magnetic-elastic interactions are large [3-6]. For gadolinium compression is seen to lead to a suppression of T c [3,6] while expansion leads to an increase of T c[7,8]. Not only does strain affect the magnetic properties but it has long been established that the-lattice constant has a profound influence on the electronic structure, even for the thinnest of thin film [9,10].